Data Centres, Green Claims and Edinburgh’s Western Edge

Data Centres, Green Claims and Edinburgh’s Western Edge

Edinburgh has never stood still, and it should not start now.

In recent months, debate over large-scale data centres has moved rapidly from a technical planning issue to a wider public conversation about energy, climate change, landscape protection and the future shape of the city. Proposals at South Gyle and Wester Hermiston have prompted questions that extend far beyond any single planning application.

This is about more than the siting of a new form of infrastructure. It is about how Edinburgh — and increasingly Scotland as a whole — meets the demands of the digital economy without weakening the landscapes, resources and communities on which any good future must depend.

For centuries the city has adapted to new technologies, industries and ways of living. Railways changed its physical form. Financial services reshaped parts of the city in the twentieth century. More recently, the digital economy has become part of Edinburgh’s success, supported by its universities, research institutions and innovative businesses.

Yet every generation faces the same question: how do we embrace change while protecting the qualities that make Edinburgh distinctive?

That question lies at the heart of the current debate around large-scale data centres.

More recently, proposals for a new generation of hyperscale data centres have prompted concern among elected members, planning professionals, environmental organisations and local communities. These developments are often presented as essential infrastructure for cloud computing, artificial intelligence and the growing demand for data storage and processing.

There is undoubtedly some truth in that argument. Modern society increasingly depends upon digital infrastructure. Data centres play an important role in supporting businesses, public services and research activity.

However, the scale of some recent proposals has raised serious questions about energy use, environmental impact, landscape change and long-term sustainability. They should not be brushed aside as technical matters.

Edinburgh should not turn its back on innovation. But neither should it assume that every large-scale infrastructure proposal must proceed simply because it is associated with technological progress.

Recent Developments

The debate came into sharp focus in February 2026 when councillors unanimously refused planning permission in principle for a large-scale data centre at the former Royal Bank of Scotland headquarters site at 1 Redheughs Avenue, South Gyle, within Edinburgh Park.

The proposal, brought forward by Shelborn Asset Management, had been recommended for approval by planning officers. Councillors nevertheless raised concerns about energy demand, carbon implications, the absence of sufficient environmental certainty and the proposal’s fit with the emerging mixed-use vision for Edinburgh Park. The refusal is now subject to appeal.

The issue did not end there. A further hyperscale proposal has been promoted for Wester Hermiston, on greenfield land near Heriot-Watt University and the City Bypass. Together, these proposals have shifted the question from one application to a wider debate about how Edinburgh should plan for this kind of infrastructure.

In June 2026, the Council’s Planning Committee considered a report on data centres. Officers advised that a local moratorium would carry significant legal risk and was not feasible. Instead, the Committee agreed to formally request that the Scottish Government introduce a moratorium on new large-scale data centres until a clear national definition and guidance on what constitutes a “green data centre” is provided.

That is the crux of the matter. “Green data centre” is now a phrase with planning weight, but without a sufficiently clear and widely accepted definition. Developers use it, campaigners challenge it, and planning authorities are left to test it case by case.

The term “green” should not be treated as a marketing description, but as a testable planning claim.

That uncertainty is not a minor administrative problem. It leaves planning authorities, communities and developers without the common yardstick such proposals plainly require.

Edinburgh is not alone in facing these questions. Similar proposals are emerging elsewhere in Scotland, often in locations where land, grid connections and energy infrastructure make large-scale development attractive. Communities from the Central Belt to the Highlands are beginning to ask many of the same questions about energy demand, landscape impact, water use and local benefit. While individual planning decisions remain local, the wider issues are increasingly national in character.

The current debate therefore extends well beyond any single proposal. It raises important questions about how Scotland plans for a rapidly expanding form of infrastructure whose impacts are often regional or national in scale.

Recent work supported by the Scottish Futures Trust has identified a number of locations across Scotland as potentially suitable for future data centre investment, reflecting growing interest in Scotland as a destination for digital infrastructure. This underlines the fact that the issues raised by data centre development are not confined to Edinburgh. Questions of energy demand, environmental performance, grid capacity and community benefit are likely to become increasingly important across Scotland as further proposals emerge. While decisions on individual applications will continue to be taken locally, the policy questions increasingly require a national response.

Why This Matters

The Cockburn Association has long supported development that contributes positively to Edinburgh’s future while respecting the city’s unique character, environmental quality and cultural significance.

From that perspective, several issues deserve careful attention.

Energy and Climate

Perhaps the most significant concern relates to energy demand.

Modern hyperscale data centres require enormous amounts of electricity. While developers often highlight commitments to renewable energy, important questions remain regarding where that energy will come from, how it will be supplied and what wider impacts it may have on Scotland’s energy system. Recent proposals elsewhere in Scotland have illustrated the scale of the challenge. Some developments have been associated with projected electricity demands comparable to those of major industrial users, prompting wider debate about energy capacity, grid resilience and national priorities.

The question is not simply whether a particular facility can buy renewable power. It is whether demand on this scale fits with wider national priorities for decarbonisation, energy security and climate resilience.

As artificial intelligence continues to drive demand for computing power, these questions are likely to become more rather than less important.

Forecasts suggest that artificial intelligence, cloud computing and digital services will continue to increase demand for processing power and associated energy infrastructure. Planning decisions taken today therefore have implications that extend well beyond the lifespan of any individual development proposal.

That makes robust evidence on energy consumption, carbon impact and long-term sustainability essential. General assurances are not enough.

Water and Infrastructure

Energy is not the only resource involved.

Depending on their cooling systems, data centres may place additional demands on water infrastructure and utility networks. These impacts can be difficult for communities to visualise because much of the activity occurs within secure buildings that appear self-contained from the outside.

Yet the wider infrastructure implications may extend far beyond the site boundary.

Depending on their design and cooling systems, hyperscale data centres can consume substantial quantities of water. International experience has shown that water demand can become a significant planning consideration alongside energy consumption. Scotland’s climate may reduce some of these pressures, but questions of water use, infrastructure capacity and long-term resilience deserve careful scrutiny as proposals come forward.

As Edinburgh continues to grow, decisions about resource allocation must be considered strategically rather than on a development-by-development basis.

Landscape and Place

Edinburgh’s setting is one of its defining characteristics.

The city’s historic skyline is internationally recognised, but equally important are the surrounding landscapes that frame it: the agricultural land, river corridors, wooded ridges and open spaces that help create Edinburgh’s distinctive sense of place.

Some of the locations now being discussed lie within sensitive landscapes on the city’s western edge, including areas of green belt and open land around Hermiston. These places perform important functions as green infrastructure, wildlife habitat and part of Edinburgh’s wider visual setting.

Edinburgh’s western edge is not vacant land waiting for a use; it is part of the city’s setting, identity and long-term environmental inheritance.

The issue is not simply one of visibility. Large-scale industrial buildings can alter the character of entire landscapes, changing how places are experienced and understood.

Good planning has always required careful consideration of these cumulative effects.

Developments of this scale must therefore demonstrate not only operational efficiency but also an ability to integrate successfully with their wider surroundings.

Planning and Public Confidence

Perhaps the most important issue is one of clarity.

Scotland’s planning system increasingly relies upon concepts such as sustainable development, climate resilience and net-zero growth. These are important principles, but they depend upon clear definitions and consistent standards.

At present, there remains real uncertainty about how data centres should be assessed, particularly when projects are described as “green” while also requiring very substantial amounts of electricity, water, land and backup infrastructure.

What evidence should be required? How should energy use be measured? What role should heat recovery, renewable generation or resource efficiency play? When should Environmental Impact Assessment be expected?

These questions deserve national answers.

The strength of public interest in recent proposals is itself significant. Data centre applications have generated substantial engagement from local residents, environmental organisations and community groups. Many concerns have focused not on the principle of digital infrastructure itself, but on questions of scale, energy demand, landscape impact and the absence of clear national standards. That level of public scrutiny reflects the growing recognition that data centres are no longer a niche planning issue but part of a wider debate about Scotland’s future development.

Large-scale data centres also test a planning system more accustomed to housing, commercial development and transport infrastructure. Their effects can run beyond local authority boundaries through energy networks, water demand and cumulative environmental change. That is why clearer national guidance is needed, rather than leaving each proposal to be fought out one application at a time.

Scotland needs clear, enforceable tests for genuinely sustainable data centres before major schemes become established by default through repeated case-by-case decisions.

Without them, planning authorities risk being asked to make decisions on proposals whose wider implications extend far beyond local boundaries.

Looking Beyond the Headlines

It would be a mistake to see this as a simple choice between economic growth and environmental protection.

Data centres can bring benefits. They support research, innovation and digital connectivity. Edinburgh’s universities and technology sector are important assets that contribute significantly to the city’s economy and international reputation.

Proponents also point to the role data centres can play in attracting inward investment, supporting business growth and strengthening digital resilience. These benefits should not be dismissed. However, large-scale facilities often generate relatively modest levels of permanent employment once operational when compared with their physical scale and resource requirements. Construction phases can create significant temporary employment, but planning authorities increasingly face questions about how long-term economic benefits should be assessed alongside environmental and infrastructure impacts.

Residents living near large-scale facilities have also raised concerns about operational noise, backup power systems, lighting, visual impacts and construction activity. While such effects can often be mitigated through careful design and planning conditions, they illustrate the importance of assessing proposals in terms of their impact on neighbouring communities as well as their wider economic and environmental benefits.

The question, then, is not whether data centres should exist. It is where they should be located, how they should be designed, what evidence should be required, and what standards they must meet before they can claim to be sustainable.

Other countries are already grappling with these issues. Questions around energy capacity, water consumption, heat reuse and cumulative impacts are becoming central to planning debates across Europe.

Heat reuse should be treated in the same practical spirit. Data centres generate large quantities of waste heat, and in the right locations that heat may be useful to nearby homes, public buildings, leisure facilities or other users through heat networks. Such opportunities will not exist everywhere. Where they are claimed, they should be tested properly, secured where appropriate, and weighed alongside energy, water and landscape impacts.

Edinburgh is not unique in facing these challenges, but it has an opportunity to help shape a thoughtful and balanced response.

What Should Happen Next?

The Cockburn Association supports calls for clearer national guidance from the Scottish Government.

As further large-scale proposals come forward, there should be a consistent framework for assessing environmental performance, resource use, locational suitability and cumulative impacts.

That framework should include:

• A clear national definition of what constitutes a genuinely sustainable or “green” data centre.
• Greater transparency regarding energy demand, water use and carbon impacts.
• Clear assessment of local employment benefits and wider economic value alongside environmental and resource impacts.
• Strong encouragement for the use of brownfield and previously developed sites wherever possible.
• Consideration of opportunities for waste heat recovery and wider community benefit.
• High standards of design quality, landscape integration and environmental mitigation.
• Appropriate assessment of cumulative impacts at both local and regional scales.

Most importantly, decisions should be based on evidence rather than assumptions.

The need for clarity extends beyond Edinburgh. Communities across Scotland deserve confidence that proposals will be assessed against consistent national standards, with clear expectations for environmental performance, resource use and community benefit.

Planning for the Future

The challenge is not a new one. Writing in the nineteenth century, Lord Cockburn observed that “though manufactures be indispensable, they need not be everywhere”. His point was not opposition to progress, but the need to ensure that development takes place in appropriate locations and with proper regard for the qualities that make places distinctive. The principle remains relevant today.

Edinburgh has always evolved. The question has never been whether change should happen, but how.

The city faces genuine challenges: climate change, housing pressures, infrastructure demands and the need to support a modern economy. Meeting those challenges will require innovation and investment.

But it will also require thoughtful planning.

The qualities that make Edinburgh special did not emerge by accident. They are the result of generations of stewardship, debate and civic engagement. As new forms of infrastructure emerge, that tradition remains as important as ever.

In 1849, Lord Cockburn addressed precisely this civic duty in his pamphlet A Letter to the Lord Provost on the Best Ways of Spoiling the Beauty of Edinburgh. His concern was not to freeze the city in time, but to ensure that change was guided by care, judgement and a sense of public responsibility. He advocated “the preservation of the beauty of our town” and warned against both “hurtful projects” and “hurtful indifference”. Those observations remain strikingly relevant as Edinburgh considers new forms of infrastructure that could have lasting effects on its landscape, environment and character.

Data centres may become an increasingly familiar feature of Scotland’s economic and physical landscape. If they do, they should be planned in a way that respects the landscapes, communities and resources upon which that future depends, whether in Edinburgh, the Central Belt or elsewhere in Scotland.

With clear national standards, robust evidence and careful decision-making, Edinburgh can embrace digital innovation without compromising the qualities that have made it one of the world’s great cities.

Edinburgh has never been well served by treating major development as inevitable first and asking questions later. If data centres are to form part of the city-region’s future, they must earn their place through evidence, design quality, environmental responsibility and respect for the landscapes that give Edinburgh its setting.

For now, the practical task is clear: follow the applications, test the claims, take part in consultations, and insist that national standards are clear enough to protect places as well as promote investment.

Further Reading

For readers who want to explore the Scottish context in more detail, the following sources provide useful starting points:

• Scottish Government, *Green Datacentres and Digital Connectivity: Vision and Action Plan for Scotland* — the principal national policy document setting out Scotland’s ambition to become a zero-carbon, cost-competitive data-hosting location.

• Digital Connectivity Scotland, *Green Data Centres* — a concise overview of the Scottish Government’s green data centre programme and site-selection work.

• National Planning Framework 4 — essential background on Scotland’s statutory planning framework, including policies on climate, infrastructure, green belts, brownfield land, heat and digital infrastructure.

• Scottish Futures Trust, *First Class Datacentre Sites Identified in New Reports* — useful context on the national site-selection work that has helped frame Scotland as a destination for data centre investment.

• Scottish Water, *Can Scotland Support More Data Centres?* — a Scotland-specific discussion of water resilience, cooling systems, infrastructure capacity and the importance of location.

• ScotlandIS, *Green Datacentres Activity Briefing* — a sector briefing on green operations, supply chains and the potential for clean heat reuse in Scotland.

• Scottish Enterprise / Scottish Government, *Green Datacentres Programme Update* — a ministerial briefing released under Freedom of Information legislation, providing background on the public-sector programme supporting green data centres, inward investment and heat-reuse opportunities.

• International Energy Agency, *Energy and AI* — an accessible overview of the growing energy demands associated with artificial intelligence and data processing infrastructure worldwide.

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